Protesters bearing the flags of their organizations march on Sunday (01/20/2019) to the venue of the 2019 Congress of the Indonesian Soccer Association (PSSI) in Nusa Dua, Bali. Hundreds of soccer enthusiasts across the country are demanding the eradication of Indonesia’s “soccer mafia”.
Reform should not be taboo for an organization like the Indonesian Soccer Association (PSSI). However, every time the organization nears reform, its management board sends out waves of rejection.
Amid the maelstrom of the match-fixing scandal, the PSSI management board and almost all participants with a vote at the annual PSSI congress in Bali appeared to be strangely silent. Even the resignation of PSSI chair Edy Rahmayadi did not encourage them to pursue reform.
The plan to turn the annual congress into a special congress (KLB) failed. Of the 85 individuals at the congress that held a vote, only PSSI Jakarta head Uden Kusuma was bold enough to propose a special congress. “Pak Edy’s resignation is not enough to fix the PSSI. Do we want to continue like this? Our national team has made no achievements and the match-fixing scandal is spreading,” Uden said after the congress (Kompas, 1/21/2019).
This was not the first time reform has faced strong resistance within the PSSI. It was also difficult to carry out reform under former PSSI chair Nurdin Halid, who retained his chairmanship despite his imprisonment until Djohar Arifin finally replaced him at the 2011 KLB in Surakarta.
Internal friction continued to brew under Djohar’s chairmanship, and the PSSI appointed La Nyalla Mattalitti as chairman at the April 2015 KLB in Surabaya. However, Youth and Sports Minister Imam Nahrawi then suspended the PSSI under La Nyalla.
When Imam suspended all PSSI activities in April 2015, it was the peak of the soccer body’s conflict with the government. Despite the suspension, La Nyalla remained as the PSSI chair for more than a year until the PSSI appointed as its new chair Lieut. Gen. Edy Rahmayadi, then the Army’s Strategic Reserves commander.
Throughout these shakedowns, one could only watch Indonesian soccer’s international performance. Indonesia once applied to host the World Cup, but this was simply Nurdin’s way of giving Indonesian soccer fans empty hope.
The four suspects named this year in the Liga 2 and Liga 3 league match-fixing this year should drive efforts to clean Indonesian soccer of corruption. However, seeing how the PSSI annual congress is proceeding in Denpasar, cleaning up the organization appears to remain a pipe dream.
The emergence of businessman Erick Thohir as a candidate for PSSI chair has brought new hope for Indonesian soccer. However, it is hard to determine when and where Erick will have the opportunity to lead the organization, considering that those who hold the votes in the PSSI are easily swayed by money and power.
We believe that management and accomplishments go hand-in-hand. As long as the PSSI management remains unprofessional, it will remain difficult to imagine our nation standing tall in international soccer competitions. Reform is necessary for us to gain achievements.
